How Often are You Called for Jury Duty?

[REWahoo]

I was never called for jury duty during the 8 years I was in the military, but I did participate in a court martial. I was a member of a line-up where a witness (flown to Florida from Thailand) was asked if she could identify the Air Force Captain she saw shoplifting at the base exchange. She picked him out and he was found guilty.

He got a dishonorable discharge for shoplifting a cassette tape. Stupid, stupid...

 

[REWahoo]

Alan, my experience has been similar to W2R's. If you let them know what the situation is well in advance of your summons date, no problem.

 

[GregLee]

The one time I was examined for possible inclusion on a jury, there was a question about jury nullification -- essentially, would I vote contrary to the judge's instructions and (hence) contrary to the law. Sort of hoping it would get me excluded, but being honest, I said yes, if I thought that otherwise there would be a miscarriage of justice. But I wasn't excluded for that, since (I guess) I was the only potential juror left in in the courtroom, and the judge just looked resigned and put me on the jury.

 

[bssc]

I was never called for jury duty during the 8 years I was in the military, but I did participate in a court martial. I was a member of a line-up where a witness (flown to Florida from Thailand) was asked if she could identify the Air Force Captain she saw shoplifting at the base exchange. She picked him out and he was found guilty.

He got a dishonorable discharge for shoplifting a cassette tape. Stupid, stupid...

I did some stuff with the JAG whien I was in High School and it was interesting to listen to the various cases that they talked about after the fact. One was a full bird colonel who put together a gift box with a fake door to see if he could get away with shoplifting from the PX. He didn't.

 

[Martha]

Logical people are not usually wanted by defense attorneys.
We just might pay attention to the facts.

It really depends. Sometimes people are convicted because people don't understand what really are facts and what may be mistakes. And some people think that just because a person is arrested they must be guilty.

 

[Moemg]

I used to be called once a year but always got excused since I was a nurse but I haven't been called in twenty years .

 

[Gumby]

I've gotten the notice several times, but on all but one occasion, a call the the provided number the night before told me I was not needed. I actually went in once and was excused during voir dire before a single question was asked.

 

[East Texas]

Since moving here, twice in the last 6 years, before that, never. We are going to England for 6 months in a couple of weeks time so if I'm called again I won't be able to attend, so not sure if I'll be fined or something.

If someone is checking your mail and you get a jury notice, you can reschedule. There will be a number on the notice for the Central Jury Room (or something like that). Call and tell them you'll be out of town. I've always found them to be accommodating. Just don't show up. They don't like that in the big cities. In San Antonio, people who didn't show up got a visit from the local constabulary. Not a good thing.

Out here, in the deep boonies of Texas, the clerks really don't care whether or not you show up as long as they have enough bodies for a pool. There's no punishment for noshows.

 

[FreeAtLast]

I was called 4 times. Three for the state and once the Federal. I asked to be excused twice, which was granted. The federal has you call in the night before for 2 weeks to see if they need you. I was asked to come in on the last day. I waited and they sent us home before noon. I actually went back to w**k in the afternoon.

The last time I was called I was selected for a DUI case. The judge told us that the case would be decided that day. We started in the early afternoon and were done by about 6pm.

The defense asked the officer why he did not remember something and his answer was "brainfart".

 

[BTravlin]

I've lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and Indiana and have never been called in the 34 years I've been registered to vote.

 

[MC1550]

Every other year here for the last eight years. I just finished my week's duty today without being chosen to even appear at the court house...Oh well.

 

[Htown Harry]

Probably every 4 years on average. I have been selected twice.

The more interesting case involved 20-year-olds in a love triangle that was settled with a tire tool. All three of the principals [-]got on the stand and lied their a**es off [/-]testified, but at the outset we didn't know that would be the case.

First we heard medical testimony and "I'm pretty sure it was Johnny who jumped me" stories from Mike, the pretty-boy who was the recipient of the blows. (Fun fact of the day: a tire tool can leave a perfect crescent-shaped bruise across a man's back.)

To our disappointment, the prosecution's case took the rest of the day. We all went home wondering whether we would get to see or hear from Mike and Johnny's true love.

Imagine the anticipation that had built up overnight. The next morning, after all kinds of delays and false starts, at last we heard the magic words..."and the defense calls to the stand [-]the most desirable woman in the entire world[/-] ...Julie"!

Well, just from using my keen powers of observation during Julie's long walk to the witness stand in high heels, it was clear that this girl had the skills to break some hearts. But after about two minutes of hearing her attempt to answer the attorney's simple questions, my fellow jurors and I were working hard to keep from laughing or rolling our eyes. Not a good witness.

I distinctly remember glancing over at Prosecution Exhibit 1 on the table and wondering whether Johnny was figuring he had swung the tire iron in the wrong direction on that fateful summer night.

Julie closed up her testimony by standing up to show the jury the engagement ring on her left hand and attempting to convince us that she was looking forward to a lifetime of wedded bliss with Johnny "just as soon as the trial is behind us." (Johnny's eyes and body language were saying something a little different, however.)

Fortunately for us, the prosecution had located the one sober person at the party who had no strong ties to Julie or one of her knucklehead beaus. In fact, she was the only witness in the whole trial who seemed to have a lick of sense. We the jury gave great weight to her "Johnny just took that tire tool and started whupping the hell out of Mike" testimony.

After deliberation, which mostly consisted of an hour or so of entertaining juror re-enactments of the juiciest parts of the testimony, Johnny was determined to be guilty. Unfortunately for Johnny, the tire-iron shaped bruise meant it was a felony conviction.

We heard from Johnny during the punishment phase. Despite a remarkably selective memory about "a group of hispanic men I didn't know" moving in Mike's general direction - and what seemed to be a superhuman power to pretend he didn't notice that Julie was sitting in the front row - he managed to convince us that he was basically a good kid who made a dumb choice. We didn't send him to prison.

 

[East Texas]

Harry, that was great!

I was on a murder jury. This 40-ish guy met a woman at a bar and took her to his apartment. At one point she said "no", to which he took great umbrage. And a baseball bat. The details at this point are pretty gory, let it suffice to say he wrapped her body in a bedspread and dumped her body.

The police were at the scene the next morning, unwrapping her [-]bloodied[/-] body, and one of them noticed a piece of paper stuck to her leg. It was a magazine label, complete with name and address, of..... the guy who did the deed.

The bad guy was pretty [-]shocked[/-] surprised when they knocked at his door. As far as most of us were concerned he should have received life in prison (the death penalty was not on the table) instead of 40 years. But, there were a couple of women on the jury who [-]said he had an unhappy childhood[/-] felt sorry for him.

 

[obgyn65]

I have never been called, which is fine with me.

 

[East Texas]

I've lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and Indiana and have never been called in the 34 years I've been registered to vote.

In Texas, valid driver licenses, active voter registrations, and property tax rolls are used to put the warm bodies in the potential jury pool.

 

[martyb]

I don't know if this is right, but last time I reported I ask about all the folks that did not seem to show up. The clerk said there was really nothing they could do about it as the notice does not go out registered mail, and there is no way to prove you got it.

Here in Bossier City, they do send the notices by registered mail, and if you don't show, the judge sends the deputies to bring you in. When I was at the courthouse along with about 200 other potential jurors, when the clerk of court called your name, if you weren't present, the judge instructed the sheriff to go get you.

 

[Midpack]

In 56 years, I have never been called. I have no idea why...

 

[Walt34]

I was called for jury duty once. At the same time, I was also a police officer working in the Fraud Section, and had a trial scheduled the same day in another courtroom. I went to the jury room, explained to the clerk there who I was and why there was no chance I'd be on a jury, and was told to report anyway.

Talked to the State's Attorney for the case I was supposed to testify in, and showed the jury summons. He gave a big sigh, and said the jury summons took priority, so I went on to the jury room, with a large accordion file containing my fraud case under one arm.

Sat around there for a hour or two and was called to the courtroom, knowing full well there was a zero chance I'd be placed on a jury. When the judge asked if any of the jury pool members knew any of the witnesses or investigating officers I indicated that I did, since I'd worked with four of the officers for 20+ years. Still, I didn't get dismissed until the judge, who I'd also known for 20+ years, asked if I would believe the testimony of the officers over that of the defense witnesses. Well, yeah, duh.

It really would have been an insult to the intelligence of the court to claim otherwise.

And by the time I was freed up from that ring-around-the-rosie, the case I'd called to testify in had been continued because I wasn't available. So they paid me for an entire day of pointless sitting around. What a waste of tax money.

 

[mickeyd]

They claim that you should not get called until 3 years have passed since the last time they gave you the opportunity to earn $6/day.

 

[Nords]

Twice in the nine years since I've become a Hawaii resident. Never from Florida during the previous 20 years, mostly because I was rarely in that state.

The first time we were waved off by the phone message the night before.

The second time we needed to spend two days convicting a guy of possession of 0.24 grams of crystal methamphetamine. From the testimony (and the frequent defense objections) it was clear that the defendant had done something else that evening to piss off a whole bunch of police officers, but apparently this was all that they could make stick.

I was the last juror chosen, perhaps because the lawyers had run out of peremptory challenges. I really tried to follow my personal philosophy of "show no leadership" but we were sent to deliberations at 3 PM with a warning that if we couldn't figure it out within the hour then we'd have to invest a third day of our lives. We gathered in the jury room and spent 15 minutes not picking a foreman, at which point I cracked under the time pressure and volunteered for the job. Then I spent the next 30 minutes showing a couple of indecisive jurors where in the 30+ pages of judge's instructions it said we were allowed to convict the guy.

I donated my $30/day + mileage to Project Meth.

I was never called for jury duty during the 8 years I was in the military, but I did participate in a court martial. I was a member of a line-up where a witness (flown to Florida from Thailand) was asked if she could identify the Air Force Captain she saw shoplifting at the base exchange. She picked him out and he was found guilty.
He got a dishonorable discharge for shoplifting a cassette tape. Stupid, stupid...

You would think that all those Air Force captains would look pretty much alike...

Oh, the JAG manual investigations I've done over the years. My favorite (in retrospect but not at the time) was the 18-year-old who thought there was just iced tea in the eight Long Island Ice Teas he drank. At a bar. In a state where the drinking age is 21. He didn't last long in the submarine force.

The worst were the investigations & administrative-discharge hearings at a Mainland command near a major military medical facility. Because of the hospital, the staff included a number of active-duty sailors who had been diagnosed HIV-positive and were pretty much stuck at commands like that until they left the service (unlikely with that "pre-existing condition") or retired. A significant minority of them were more focused on their bucket lists than on long-term planning so the investigating-officer business was brisk.

I actually went in once and was excused during voir dire before a single question was asked.

Is that because of your military service or your law degree?

The more interesting case involved 20-year-olds in a love triangle that was settled with a tire tool.

The only thing missing from that story is the sentence "Here, Bubba, hol' ma beer and hand me thet thar tar arn!"

They claim that you should not get called until 3 years have passed since the last time they gave you the opportunity to earn $6/day.

I fear that it's annually here, and once you're in the "served" database...

 

[East Texas]

They claim that you should not get called until 3 years have passed since the last time they gave you the opportunity to earn $6/day.

Theoretically that's true in Texas. **However** San Antonio has six distinct courts and each jury call is independent of the other. I was in a jury pool three times in one year because they were all different courts. Traffic court was the most fun. We enjoyed the long line of people trying to [-]wiggle out of[/-] negotiate their penalty without a jury trial. At the end of a very long day only one jury was seated. The defendant took one look at the jury and decided [-]he was totally screwed[/-] it was best to quickly accept the plea deal and get out of there. I was surprised the plea deal was still on the table; but, what the heck - it was a nice afternoon to sit in a downtown pub and have a cold beer.

 

[East Texas]

I donated my $30/day + mileage to Project Meth.

$30 a day? Wow... it's $6 a day here and no mileage!

The only thing missing from that story is the sentence "Here, Bubba, hol' ma beer and hand me thet thar tar arn!"

You must have strong Southern roots somewhere in your background.

 

[Nords]

You must have strong Southern roots somewhere in your background.

The Navy taught me enough foreign languages to procure the necessities of life almost anywhere in the world...

 

[LOL!]

When I was in Houston I was called obnoxiously 3 times a year for a number of years. In fact, is was so bad that there were a number of us at once jury call who, also, had the same amount of times to be called.
I have no idea if we were on a "suckers list" or what, but it did eventually stop.

You were on a suckers list. The folks who programmed the Houston jury summons used a random number generator that was flawed plus they used the same seed for every run, so they always got the same list of people whenever they needed jurors.

This was eventually figured out and fixed. All my computer science buddies laughed about this at the time, since it succinctly explained why they were always being called up for jury duty.

 

[Khan]

Been in Ohio more than 30 years. Think have been called more than 5 times: sometimes registered mail, twice county sheriff personally delivered notice.
Most had been dismissed when I called; 1 dismissed after I showed up; 1 was jury selected before they got to me.